DETROIT — Considering the game he played, it was a cruel way to concede the tying goal.

For that matter, the winning goal was a spirit crusher as well.

Regardless, Devan Dubnyk had another outstanding performance for the Edmonton Oilers on Friday in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Detroit Red Wings.

“He’s been good all year, he played very well for us,” said Oilers head coach Tom Renney. “He looked solid, he looked big, he trapped the puck well. He was an efficient goaltender.

“They did get a lot of shots and they loaded up pretty well on their power play, but he was big for us.”

Dubnyk turned aside 42 shots in the contest and was 25 second away from recording his second shutout of the season.

However, Nicklas Lidstrom scored the tying goal, banking a shot in off Andrew Cogliano’s skate.

“I really didn’t think we were going to get scored on,” said Dubnyk. “I felt fine at the end, but it’s tough because I don’t play the puck to go off my guy. When he took that shot it, was going towards the other side of the net where everybody else was.

“If that’s their player’s stick, it’s a different story, but it was a tough break obviously and there’s not much you can do on those ones I guess.”

The goal in overtime was equally as difficult to swallow.

Pavel Datsyuk scored after slashing the stick out of the hands of Jeff Petry and snapping a shot through a screen.

Apart from not being awarded a slashing penalty on the overtime winner, the Oilers felt play should have been blown dead on the tying goal after Jason Strudwick played the puck during a delayed penalty call.“It’s tough, but we need to find a way to win those games, even though it was a great effort and it shows that we can play against a team like this,” Dubnyk said. “If we can play against these guys, we can play against anybody, but we need to knuckle down and be sure to play every game this way.”